The 6" Libretto 20 dates back to early 1996 and weighed only 840g. Apple also had a line of PowerBook Duos that were ultra-portable Macintosh laptops in the mid 90s. More recently, Psion's now-discontinued netBook line, the OLPC XO-1 (initially called US$100 laptop) and the Palm Foleo were all small, portable, network-enabled computers. The generic use of the term "netbook", however, began in 2007 when Asus unveiled the Asus Eee PC. Originally designed for emerging markets, the 23 x device weighed about 0.9 kg and featured a 7 in display, a keyboard approximately 85% the size of a normal keyboard, a solid-state drive and a custom version of Linux with a simplified user interface geared towards netbook use. Following the Eee PC, Everex launched its Linux-based CloudBook; Windows XP and Windows Vista models were also introduced and MSI released the Wind—others soon followed suit.

Asus was founded in Taipei in 1989 by T.H. Tung, Ted Hsu, Wayne Hsieh and M.T. Liao, all four having previously worked at Acer as hardware engineers. AsusTek Computer Inc. (stylised as ASUSTeK or ASUS) is a Taiwanese multinational computer and phone hardware and electronics company headquartered in Beitou District, Taipei, Taiwan.

Most of the country's major firms are based there including Asus, CTBC Bank, Fubon Financial Holding, Tatung Company, D-Link, and others.

They are primarily for direct OEM manufacturers and system builders, and as such are typically sold in volume licensing deals to a variety of manufacturers (Dell, HP, ASUS, Acer, Lenovo, Wistron, Inventec, Supermicro, Compal Electronics, Quanta Computer, Foxconn, Pegatron, Jabil, Flex, etc.).

The ROG Phone will have a special version of the Snapdragon 845 CPU that can be overclocked, vapor cooling, an external heatsink fan with the USB-C and headphone connectors on its bottom, three different docks and will be released in Q3 2018.

The ROG Phone is an Android gaming smartphone made by Asus and the first generation of the ROG smartphone series.

Most of Asus' smartphones are powered by Intel Atom processors with the exceptions of few Padfone series and some ZenFone 2 models that use Qualcomm Snapdragon, though later phones in the series now either use Qualcomm Snapdragon or Mediatek systems on chip.

, ASUS, HP and Lenovo have begun selling laptops with Snapdragon-based CPUs running Windows 10 under the name "Always Connected PCs", marking an entry into the PC market for Qualcomm and the ARM architecture.

In January 2008, Asus began a major restructuring of its operations, splitting into three independent companies: Asus (focused on applied first-party branded computers and electronics); Pegatron (focused on OEM manufacturing of motherboards and components); and Unihan Corporation (focused on non-PC manufacturing such as cases and molding).

As part of the corporate restructuring of ASUSTeK Computer starting in 2007, Pegatron acquired Unihan Corporation from ASUSTeK in January 2008.